Rain likely to continue; Chris becomes hurricane off Newfoundland

Tropical Storm Chris is projected to die at sea within the next two days.

National Hurricane Center

National Hurricane Center

Ken KayeSun Sentinel

After a mostly cloudy and at times rainy day Wednesday, South Florida can expect more of the same on Thursday, the National Weather Service said.

“We are setting up for a wet pattern for the rest of the week,” meteorologist Pablo Santos said, adding that portions of South Florida might get up to 5 inches more rain by Monday morning.

The culprit behind all the cloudy skies: an expansive Caribbean disturbance, which was centered over Cuba on Wednesday and slowly drifting northwest over the state.

Officially, the forecast from West Palm Beach to Miami calls for mostly cloudy skies and a 50 percent chance of showers or storms on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The rain chance eases to 40 percent on Sunday.

If the Miami Heat wins the NBA championship on Thursday night, revelers can expect a 40 percent chance of rain, whether they celebrate in the streets of Boca Raton, Sunrise or at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

On Wednesday, 2 to 4 inches of rain fell across South Florida, most of it during the morning hours. A flood watch was posted for the entire region, and some minor street flooding was reported in southern Broward County and north Miami-Dade County.

The lousy weather delayed more than 30 flights at South Florida’s major airports, although the majority of those were at Miami International. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach international airports reported minimal delays.

Some flights planning to land in Miami were diverted to Fort Lauderdale, including a Dynasty China Cargo Boeing 747, airport officials said.

Potentially, the disturbance could worsen into a tropical depression or storm over the next few days, if conditions become more favorable for its development.

However, that likely would happen when it’s far to the north of us, in the Atlantic near the Carolinas, and early next week, said Jeff Masters, chief meteorologist of Weather Underground, an online weather site. The National Hurricane Center gave the system a medium chance of developing over the next two days.

The next named storm will be Debby.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris reached hurricane strength on Thursday far from any land masses. At 11 a.m., Chris, theAtlantic Ocean'sfirst hurricane of 2012, was located about 625 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada, with top sustained winds of 75 mph. Chris was sprinting northeast at 20 mph.

Chris is predicted to stay out at sea.

With Chris, three named storms have developed this year. Masters said the third storm has emerged earlier than this year only twice before in recorded history, in 1887 and 1959.

“Formation of three tropical storms so early in the year is not necessarily a harbinger of an active season,” he said, noting that 1959 saw close to average activity with 12 named storms, including seven hurricanes.

High levels of early season activity in the Caribbean and between Africa and the Lesser Antilles “usually portends a very active hurricane season,” he noted.

“But this year's storms have not formed in this region,” Masters said. “Alberto, Beryl, and Chris all formed off the U.S. East Coast.”